Taiwan eyes India trade

By Kevin Chen / Staff reporter

The Bureau of Foreign Trade yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with Standard Chartered PLC, as the government plans to use the UK lender’s regional resources to help foster trade between Taiwan and India.

The UK banking group, which employs more than 80,000 people in more than 70 nations, has had operations in India for more than 150 years, with 90 branches in 33 cities there. In Taiwan, Standard Chartered has 88 branches, the bureau said in a statement.

“The bureau hopes Standard Chartered’s well-established service network in India and its years of business experience there can help Taiwanese businesses to develop and seize business opportunities in that country,” the bureau said in the statement. “In the meantime, we hope to attract Indian businesses to Taiwan to help upgrade the nation’s economy and improve its competitiveness.”

Bilateral trade between Taiwan and India totaled US$7.56 billion last year, up 16.98 percent from the previous year. That represented an increase of 700 percent from US$940 million in 1995, when the two countries first set up representative offices in each other’s territories to deal with trade and cultural exchanges, according to the bureau’s statistics.